Thrillsville.

by chuckofish

This made me laugh.

My mother and I were recently talking (this is my new intro sentence for blog topics because she is the only person with whom I discuss anything of substance) about how we might start re-reading books we read as children. When I went to the book sale at the Jefferson City Library, they were only selling children’s books (and then records and DVDs where I made out like a bandit), but flipping through the old library chapter books really took me back. And it reminded me of some series I had totally forgotten about.

I have a very specific feeling I associate with those old chapter books–the make believe, the imagination, the old library at Flynn Park Elementary School. The other reason to re-read chapter books is that they are easier to read. Seriously, my brain is such mush these days, that I swear I need something lighter.

Here are some books I’d re-read:

The Chronicles of Narnia–for obvious reasons. But also because I read them haphazardly over many years (and I’m even sure I read the last one).

Rumer Godden’s books about dolls–The Doll’s House, Miss Happiness & Miss Flower etc. I just loved these stories and I enjoyed the perspective of the dolls. Very Toy Story before Pixar.

Swallows and Amazons–This series about English children being allowed to sail around on a small boat and camp on an island all alone is amusing in this day and age, but it is nice to read about capable people who are nice and smart, too. Capability is highly underrated these days.

Anyway, of course I can’t find my copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe right now but I found this quote online when trying to find another one and it is rather apt:

“I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis.”

What would you re-read?